Pearling (cited references)

Pearling is where you examine the reference lists of relevant articles, this may help you discover resources that did not show up in your database searches. You can then use an Internet search to help you locate these resources - remember that they may not have been published online!

Cooke, Smith & Booth (2012) suggests that this approach is similar to snowball sampling, leading the researcher from one study to another until all the leads are exhausted - this is referred to as 'pearl growing' or 'pearling'